


They Ask Me Why I'm Bringing A Baby Into Battle (that's really irresponsible, and getting them rattled)

by secretsofthejourney



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, References to drug and alcohol use, Team as Family, Very Loosely following the plot of Three Men and a Baby (1987), alternating pov, darkly funny and insane, which wound up being darker than I thought before I watched it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:54:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29641926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretsofthejourney/pseuds/secretsofthejourney
Summary: Tony thought he knew how to deal with Life, when it decides to fuck with him. He was the youngest billionaire in history, of course he could handle having a quarter-life crisis. But even he couldn’t have predicted what the future had in store. Anything can happen when the world is a dumpster fire. You could make scientific breakthroughs with one genius friend and have another go mysteriously missing. You could be watching trash tv with a Norwegian prince on the weekends. You could walk right into a major corporate conspiracy. You could find yourself with more family than you ever thought possible. You could let a hot medical student take you home for a one night stand, and wind up kidnapped with him instead.Someone has been playing an elaborate game with Tony’s life, and he’s sick of being the dumping ground for everyone else’s problems. Now, he’s back in graduate school to learn the most important lesson of all: how to live his life on his own terms. He’s more determined than ever to fight for it, and to save everyone else who’s been made a pawn in some elusive villain's scheme. Especially the little baby at the center of it all. Who the fuck decided to bring a baby into this battle?
Relationships: Carol Danvers/Natasha Romanov, Happy Hogan/Pepper Potts, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Comments: 4
Kudos: 10





	They Ask Me Why I'm Bringing A Baby Into Battle (that's really irresponsible, and getting them rattled)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Curiousreader8044](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curiousreader8044/gifts).



> Of course, for my first attempt at a multi-chapter story, I had to go and get inspired by one of the weirdest movies ever made, and include almost the entire ensemble of the MCU. You don’t have to have seen Three Men and a Baby (1987) to read this, but you can guess what it’s going to be about from the title. This story is going to be a weird blend of dark humor, college student shenanigans, overly dramatized crime investigations, fluffy romance, poor decision making, found family, and general ridiculousness. 
> 
> I’ve based almost all of the characters off of how we see them in the MCU, although there are definitely some things I’m drawing from the comics. Specifically, I’ve characterized Tony based on both the movies as well as the International Ironman series that ran in 2016. Cassandra Gillespie was also a character in that comic series who I absolutely loved, so I’ve brought her into this story as one of the antagonists. All backstory for the other characters is based on the movies and whatever I could find on Google. That said, none of these people have their powers in this universe. Unless you consider the existential terror and confusion of your mid-twenties to be a superpower?
> 
> I’m really just using this story as an excuse to vent my frustrations about being a graduate student, and to imagine a world that’s a little more fun and a little more wild than the current pandemic allows. It’s all just a bit of nonsense I decided to share with the fandom. That said, if after all of that you still wind up enjoying the story, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. And, if you’re confused or have some critiques, I welcome constructive feedback.
> 
> Above all, this is an IronStrange love story, so I hope I do these characters, and this family, justice. Happy reading, and welcome to the circus :)

_Drip._

_Drip._

_Drip._

… _Drip._

Each tiny drop of water leaking from the rusty pipes overhead landed on the back of Maya’s neck, freezing her skin as they rolled underneath the collar of her dress and down her spine in a steady trickle. Goosebumps prickled along her bare arms, her shoulders strained from the force of being roughly tied behind her, and the rope around her wrists was starting to burn. Strands of her brown hair were plastered against her forehead from dried sweat, her teal cocktail dress doing nothing to protect her from the damp chill in the room. She was simultaneously too hot and too cold, and she mourned the loss of her favorite leather jacket. With her head throbbing in pain, it was too hard to remember whether she left it at the party, or if her captors had confiscated it. Either way, she doubted she would be seeing it again after tonight. If she even made it past tonight. She shivered at the thought.

Being tied to a chair in the boiler room of some unknown building was definitely not the way she planned for this night to go.

**3 Hours Ago**

_“Another drink, Dr. Hansen?”_

_Maya looked up from her seat on the couch to find Tony Stark standing over her, offering her a martini. She smiled and took it, “Not a doctor yet, though, am I?”_

_Tony took a sip from his own glass and sat down beside her, casually flinging one arm over the back of the couch, “Might as well be, you finish your PhD at the end of the semester. Then you get to join the club”._

_Someone shouted “_ I love this song! _” and the music thumping in the background suddenly turned up. Dozens of drunk twenty-somethings started jumping up and down and pumping their fists to the fast rhythm, crowding around the couch and every available corner of the penthouse living room. One petite brunette who looked too young to go to their university— post-grad or otherwise— had the bright idea to get up on the glass coffee table in front of them. Maya shifted closer to Tony at the end of the sofa. Better to be out of the danger zone, when the glass inevitably broke. Tony didn’t seem worried about it in the least, which was fair. If his apartment got trashed tonight, he could just buy a brand new one. It wouldn’t be the first time, in the few months that Maya had known him._

_Over the loud base, she had to practically yell, “Which club is that? The ‘My Ego Could Fill a Room’ Club? Or the ‘I Got Another Degree to Stick It to My Father’ Club?”_

_“Absolutely not! Membership in those clubs is very exclusive”._

_“Because they only admitted you?”_

_Tony dramatically held a hand over his heart as though he’d been struck, “You wound me”._

_Maya just smirked and shrugged, taking another sip of her drink. It was cool and refreshing, compared to the heat of too many bodies packed into Tony’s penthouse. “I criticize because I care”._

_“You’d be surprised how much those circles overlap”. Tony downed the rest of his drink in one gulp, as though he was trying to wash away that depressing thought, “But you won’t be caught in the middle of that fucked up ven-diagram, you’re still green and optimistic, so don’t worry”._

_Now it was Maya’s turn to wash down the uncomfortable lump in her throat. “Yeah. Right. I’ll just stick to the ‘Geniuses Under 30’ Club, then”._

_When the song ended and more people began to mingle, the floor-to-ceiling-windows of the living room were visible once more. From where they were seated, Maya had a perfect view of the Boston skyline, a million lights flickering on as night descended across the city. Up here, relaxing in the pristine, white interior of the penthouse, with the black and navy urban tapestry stretching for miles before her, it literally felt like being king of the world. Not for the first time, Maya wondered, “If you have all of this, why did you bother getting another degree anyways? You were in the Doctorate Club before you were even legal to drink, it’s not like you have anything to prove”. She didn’t mention that Tony had also lost the ‘stick it to my father’ motivation by then, too. No need to bring that up._

_Tony heard the subtextual question anyways, “Let’s just say I’m having a bit of a quarter-life crisis”. He smiled and tried to pass it off as a joke, but it fell flat._

_Maya nodded, considering the man beside her. He was too young to have a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He laughed with his guests and was a friend to everyone, but all of these people were strangers, here because of his money and his reputation and his liquor cabinet. There were dark circles under his eyes, and an empty pallor to his complexion that he thought he was good at hiding. His home was filled with a sea of people, but he was adrift, struggling to stay afloat and only just managing to keep his head above water. Perhaps for the first time, Maya looked at Tony and truly saw how lonely he was._

_In that moment, she hated herself for everything she was doing to cause it._

  
**The Present**

_SMACK!_

A calloused hand cracked across Maya’s face, blood trickling down her chin from where a thick, silver ring split her lip open.She spat a wad of red-stained saliva onto the floor and grimaced, “Are you going to tell me what you want, or are you going to let John-Travolta-Wanna-Be over here knock me around until I’m unconscious?”

_SMACK!_

Okay, maybe now wasn’t the time for mouthing off.

_SMACK!_

“You should be more grateful”, said Aldrich Killian, stepping forward from the shadows. The yellow light of the single bulb hanging from the ceiling made his cream-colored suit and slick, blonde hair look sallow and dull. When he smiled at her, it was like pure slime had been smeared across his face, “Or did you forget who’s been funding your fancy PhD all this time?”

_SMACK!_

Maya could already feel the bruise starting to form around her left eye. If Killian was letting the physical abuse go on for this long, something must have really made him angry.

“Didn’t know AIM was in the habit of funding hit-squads, too. Or are these your personal attack dogs?”

Grease Lightning did not look pleased at that. _SMACK!_ Whoops.

Maya winced at the taste of blood in her mouth. “What do you want, Killian?”

He waved, and the hired guns surrounding her, including the human refrigerator who’d turned her into a punching bag for the evening, immediately stood down. Killian’s custom leather shoes clicked ominously against the dirty floor when he took another step forward, “What is Stark working on?”

Shit.

Her delay in responding cost her. With another wave of Killian’s hand, her tormenter was back, but instead of another slap, he slammed an uppercut into her diaphragm, making her choke on air. For a few brief, terrifying seconds, Maya literally could not pull air into her lungs. Her heart raced and her chest heaved, but no oxygen came. Finally, when black spots started to dance in front of her eyes, her muscles remembered how to work again and she gasped in relief, each ragged inhale echoing off the concrete walls.

Killian stepped right into her personal space, leaning close enough that they were practically nose to nose, “You know Maya, you haven’t been subtle. I can tell when a woman is avoiding me, playing hard to get. But I’m determined, and one way or another, I always get what I want”. His warm breath was bitter and moist, “So I’ll ask you again. What is Stark working on?”

“I don’t know”.

“Oh, but you do. I know you do, because you’re too smart not to have figured it out. That’s why the Master sent you in there to spy on him”. Killian delicately ran his finger down Maya’s jaw in a mockery of a caress, and she jerked away from his touch. “That was the deal, honey. We give you the money you need to fund your research, and you tell us about everything he does”.

She couldn’t escape the scratch of his fingers as they traced along the line of her cheek, over the bridge of her nose, down the center of her lips to her chin. Then he roughly seized her throat in his crushing grip, “Tell us what you know, or I’ll choke the life out of you myself’.

Throat burning and face turning purple, Maya frantically nodded.

**3 Hours Ago**

_“Tony! There you are!”_

_The young billionaire groaned and slid further into the couch, trying to hide from the woman approaching them from across the room. It was too late, of course. Before Maya even had a chance to blink, Tony suddenly had his lap full of lanky, tanned legs and jet black curls. He stayed reclined with both arms spread across the back of the couch, the picture of nonchalance, but Maya could tell that it was a deliberate attempt to conceal how uncomfortable he really was. “Cassandra, hey. I didn’t know you were back in town”._

_This was probably the last person either Maya or Tony wanted to see, but for completely different reasons. Tossing her hair over one shoulder to show off the plunging neckline of her black cocktail dress, Cassandra paid no attention to the obvious discomfort in Tony’s voice. She threw her arms around his neck and smiled seductively, “Well, I know how much you love surprises”._

_“Yep. That’s me. Love it when my exes drop by to surprise me”._

_Cassandra chuckled darkly, “Of course you do. And you get two in one night, with both me and Maya here”._

_“It was one time”, Maya snapped, drawing Cassandra’s attention. She didn’t mean to be defensive. It happened once, and it was nice, and then they’d mutually agreed to never do it again. End of story. But it rankled Maya like nothing else, to have Cassandra insinuate that the two of them were somehow co-conspirators in whatever ‘surprise’ she had concocted. She didn’t_ want _to know the infamous Cassandra Gillespe, but she did, and the things she knew made this situation all the worse. Whatever Cassandra was here for, Maya wanted no part in it._

_“No need to get so worked up, Maya, I’m only here for a little fun”, Cassandra said, running a hand through Tony’s spiked-up hair._

_When she saw Tony actively looking anywhere but at Cassandra, she’d had enough. Maya grabbed the other woman by the arm and yanked her from Tony’s lap, “Can I talk to you for a second?” She lead Cassandra away from the living room, through the crowd and down the hall towards the bedrooms. All of the guest rooms were currently occupied, so Maya practically dragged Cassandra into one of the bathrooms, locking the door behind them._

_Maya turned with absolute fury in her eyes and demanded, “What the fuck are you doing here?”_

_“Same thing as you”, Cassandra replied simply, gracefully hopping up onto the sink counter like it was her personal throne._

_“I highly doubt you’re here because you wanted to make sure that Tony’s okay”._

_“Right”, that deep chuckle was truly infuriating, “You’re “concerned”. If that’s what you’re calling it now…”_

_“I’m serious”, Maya continued to glare the other woman down, “No tricks. No excuses. No ulterior motive”._

_Cassandra stared at her in shock, “Shit, you really are serious. You went and got attached to the target!”_

_“He’s not a target!”_

_“He is to the Master. Who, in case you forgot, owns both of us”. Cassandra audibly ground her teeth at that, “We have a job to do. You can’t go catching feelings”._

_Maya wanted to rail against the implication of “catching feelings”, but another realization struck, “He sent you, didn’t he? He sent you to check up on me”._

_“Of course he did”, Cassandra crossed her arms and looked down at Maya in exasperation, like she was explaining something very basic to a small child, “You haven’t given him anything in a month. Of course he was going to send me to make sure you haven’t forgotten your mission”. Maya felt so small under that scrutinizing gaze, but she held her ground as Cassandra continued, “Although, if you really have gone soft, maybe he was right to worry”._

_“No”, Maya said, a little too quickly. “No. I’m doing my job, watching him, keeping him on track. He’s no good to us if he’s too depressed to invent”._

_At that, Cassandra rolled her eyes, “He lives in a palace and has all the luxuries he could ever want. What could he possibly be depressed about?”_

_Maya leveled her with an incredulous look, “Oh I don’t know? How about the fact that we’ve deliberately taken away everyone he cares about?”_

_When Cassandra only continued to stare back, unconvinced, Maya elaborated, “We turned Pepper Potts against him, so she would transfer to working at the Malibu Headquarters. We assigned Happy Hogan to be her security guard while she’s on the other side of the country. We shipped James Rhodes off on the earliest deployment to Iraq. We made sure that the Butler died. We spent the last six months slowly making sure the only family he has left are scattered all over the globe!”_

_“Exactly, he has fewer distractions now. Fewer people watching his back, who might notice something is up”._

_“And he has more reason to do bullshit like_ this _now!” Maya cried, pointing emphatically towards the door where the party still raged on the other side. “How is that helpful to the Master?”_

_That point finally seemed to get through to Cassandra, who absently traced the swirls in the marble countertop while she considered the situation. “Isolating him and making him desperate was the plan, you know”._

_“But if we push him too far, it won’t work”. Maya knew she was walking on a tightrope, and every word she spoke, every choice she made, was a delicate balancing act. She’d been avoiding telling her bosses what she knew for a while now— though ‘bosses’ was a generous term for it. She’d been avoiding them, because every time, they asked her to destroy Tony’s life a little more, and she didn’t know if she could go through with the plan anymore. She knew it was only a matter of time before they got impatient. Cassandra’s presence here tonight officially forced her hand. She needed to make a decision, but she couldn’t let Cassandra know that there’d even been a decision to make in the first place. “It’s funny. I always thought_ you _would be the one to take his side”, Maya said, turning the doubt back onto her adversary,“I mean, you pretended to date him, after all. Surely you two connected, coming from the same background”._

_The way Cassandra pretended to boredly examine her perfectly polished red nails was almost convincing, “And what kind of background is that?”_

_“You know. Both your families were powerful weapons manufacturers? You both have more money than God? Both had absent parents with outrageous expectations of their only child? I mean really, the Daddy issues alone—”_

_In a flash, Cassandra leapt off the counter and pinned Maya against the bathroom door with her forearm digging into Maya’s throat, “Don’t. Ever. Speak about my parents. Ever”. Cassandra’s brown eyes were alight with outrage and hatred, all fueled by a flash of… yes, fear. Maya maintained eye contact, refusing to appear bothered by her vulnerable position. Cassandra might have the upper hand physically, but Maya had valuable information, an ace she could play whenever she chose. Those were personal details beyond what people in their position should know about each other, and now, Cassandra was left wondering what else Maya had learned._

_With Cassandra firmly off balance, Maya made her final move, “I’m not on Stark’s side any more than you, but I guess neither of us look very convincing, from the outside. It would be terrible if the Master started doubting us both, now wouldn’t it?”_

_Cassandra sneered and practically growled, like a tiger caught in a trap, “Yes. Yes, it would”._

**The Present**

When Killian released her, Maya was left taking in great gulps of air, “I… I know what he’s planning. But… _gasp_ … you didn’t have to kidnap me. Cassandra… _gasp…_ already told me to hurry up and find you”.

Killian’s sinister smile only widened, “But were you actually going to?” He paced in a slow circle around Maya’s chair, looming over her with every accusation, “You see, Cassandra was under the impression that you’d lost sight of the Big Picture, that you’d started to forget your place”. Killian stopped in front of her and casually tucked his hands into his pockets, “That’s why she called me”.

From the corner of the room, Cassandra emerged in her full, black combat gear. All traces of the flirty princess persona were gone, with her hair pulled into a slick pony tail and a pistol securely attached to her hip. Her smile was all teeth and cut like a knife, “Hey Maya”.

Tigers are the most dangerous when cornered.

**3 Hours Ago**

_When Maya was sure Cassandra had fully disappeared back into the crowd, she closed the home office door behind her and breathed a sigh of relief. She knew what she had to do._

_Tony’s desk was a mess of books and blueprints and pencils scattered across the surface, but underneath all that, Maya was able to find his laptop. It only took her two tries to guess his password. She might not be the world’s greatest tech genius, but she had her own powers of deduction. She’d been using them against Tony all this time, so she felt no shame in using them to try and finally make things right._

“JARVIS?” _she called to the room._

_The robotic voice of a familiar butler answered her, too softly to be heard above the noise of the party, “Yes, Dr. Hansen?”_

_Maya closed her eyes against the jolt of fondness at the professional title. Tony had so much faith in her, had been nothing but good to her, and she was about to break his heart. She swallowed her regret (you have to, it’s the only way he’ll be safe…) and addressed the AI once more, “_ JARVIS _, you need to upload everything I’m about to give you onto Tony’s private server”._

_“Is this regarding a personal matter?”_

_(If by personal you mean my complete and utter betrayal…) “No. Tony is in danger”._

_“Should I call for Mr. Stark?”_

_“No!” she was a coward, she couldn’t say this to Tony’s face, “You need to wait until he’s alone, no one else can see this. Do you understand?”_

_The silence as_ JARVIS _processed that information was deafening. Until she’d met Tony’s creation, she’d never dreamed that robots could one day embody caution, or concern, or judgement, yet she felt all of those things being cast in her direction now. She would be in awe, if she weren’t currently terrified of_ JARVIS _refusing to help. Finally, the stern voice responded, “Very well. What would you like me to tell him?”_

**The Present**

Maya felt her stomach drop to the floor. No matter what she did or didn’t tell them now, she’d underestimated the extent of Cassandra’s vindictiveness. She might have saved Tony, but there was no way out for her.

She’d made a deal with the devil, and he’d come to collect his due.

She was going to die.

**3 Hours Ago**

_When she rejoined the party, Maya found Tony stumbling and swaying through the crowded kitchen, an almost empty bottle of scotch in one hand. He smiled at her like he hadn’t seen her in years, even though she’d only been gone a few minutes. “Been lookin’ all ovr-fr ya!” he slurred, and promptly tripped over his own feet. Maya caught him in her arms and propped him up against the kitchen island. “Whoops!” He was giggling like a fool, and it would be endearing if he didn’t currently have the motor skills of a stringless marionette. She plucked the bottle of scotch from his hand and shoved it at a random guy passing next to her, “Here, you look like you need this more than he does”._

_Eventually, she got Tony propped up on one of the island bar stools, laying his head on the cool countertop. He beamed up at her with a dopey smile, “My hero”._

_Jesus, those brown, doe eyes were enough to melt her heart on a good day. Right now, they were so trusting, so vulnerable, they cut her straight to the bone and made everything about this night so much worse. “I only saved you from the floor” (not anything actually important) “I’m no hero”._

_To escape that penetrating gaze, she darted back through the crowd towards the living room, where she’d left her leather jacket on the couch. One of the frat guys was sitting on it. Asshole._

_When she returned to the kitchen, one boy’s ego successfully bruised and jacket securely over her shoulders (ew, it was warm now. don’t think about it don’t think about it don’t think about it…) she snatched the shot of tequila Tony was about to have and downed it herself._

_“Hey!”_

_“Don’t you want to still be alive when Banner comes by for you in the morning? Or did you forget?”_

_  
He totally forgot._

_Maya smiled and laughed at his embarrassed face, “It’s alright, he’ll understand if you’re a little hungover, he’s been there plenty himself”, she wrapped an arm around Tony’s shoulders and pulled him close, “Just don’t black out tonight and blow him off, okay?” She’d taken away everyone else from his life, the least she could do was try and steer him towards a new friend to watch his back. Someone had to. Too many people were trying to stab him in it. Including her._

_Tony nodded, then buried his face in the crook of her neck. For a moment, she just held him and rested her chin on top of his head, letting him breathe. It was only because they were so close that she heard Tony murmur, “Gonna miss you when you’re gone”._

_He was only thinking about her impending graduation, of course. He didn’t have any reason to believe that statement could apply to something else entirely. But Maya did, and she swore she physically felt her heart split in two. She pressed a long, lingering kiss to Tony’s hair to hide the fact that her throat was too tight to say anything in reply. Finally, she composed_ _herself enough to cup his face in her hands. Stroking his cheek with her thumb, she smiled through her gathering tears, and spoke the only honest words she would ever say to him, “I’ll miss you, too”._

**The Present**

Maya closed her eyes and made her peace with what was about to happen. There was no one to blame but herself, for this. No one to hate but herself, for what she’d willingly done to Tony in order to pursue her own selfish interests. She wouldn’t waste what precious minutes she had left on wondering whether it had been worth it. Instead, she spent it praying to whatever higher power that might still pity her, begging them to make this right. To let Tony live.

Otherwise, her only hope was the intuitive programming of an AI and an unassuming, encrypted file that simply read:

_I’m sorry, Tony._

**2 Hours Ago**

_After leaving the party, she’d only made it around the block before she saw them following her._

_She ran and ran through the city streets, but they were always faster._

_She might be able to lose them, if she made it to a T station, but then—_

_But then a_ crack! _of blinding pain shooting from the back of her skull, and the world faded into total darkness._

**The Present**

Maya opened her eyes and glared at Killian and Cassandra like she wasn’t afraid of them.

She wasn’t afraid of anything, now.

“You’re right. I do know what Tony’s working on”.

Their victorious smiles abruptly melted when she said, “But I’ll never tell you what it is”.

If these were her last moments on Earth, she was going to make them count, “What he’s imagined… it’s just as powerful as we hoped, and more revolutionary than we could’ve ever dreamed. Tony Stark is going to save the world, but you’d rather let it keep on destroying itself, just to make yourselves rich. It doesn’t matter what you do to me, I’m not gonna help you do that anymore”.

Cassandra sniffed in annoyance, “Fine. We don’t need you anymore, anyways. One way or another, Stark will give us what we want”.

All Maya could do was cackle at how completely wrong Cassandra was, “Then you know nothing about Tony Stark”.

They could try and isolate him from his family, string him out on alcohol and drugs, distract him with frivolous things and insipid sycophants, make him so desperate for a way out that he’ll latch onto the first person who sticks around, but it would always fail. There was nothing, _nothing,_ that could ever make Tony abandon his compassion and help them destroy the world.

Cassandra rolled her eyes in disgust and looked at Killian, “See? I told you she cared for him”.

Even facing her death, Maya wasn’t going to let this backstabbing bitch off the hook, “And you don’t?”

That earned her a broken nose from Cassandra’s own fist. Seriously? They were going to kill her anyways, she could do without the extra beatings along the way.

Even though he appeared unmoved, the stoney expression on Killian’s face belied his inner rage, “Hmmm. She does seem to care a great deal”, he crossed his arms, considering Maya carefully, “But does he care for you? Everyone has a weak spot. Perhaps Stark just needs a little… incentive”.

Maya had to bite her tongue to keep her anger in check. She knew that was their Plan B, but they didn’t need to know that it would actually _work._ It would work with the right person, and that wasn't her. They needed to believe that Plan B wasn't worth pursuing. They needed to believe that Tony was as stubborn and unshakable as he presented himself to be. “We already took away everyone he cares about”.

Luckily, Cassandra confirmed this, “She’s right. He doesn’t care about her, not like that. She’s just gone and gotten herself killed for a stupid, unrequited crush”.

For the second time tonight, Maya refused to break Cassandra’s stare. She would not be ashamed for finally standing up and doing the right thing, no matter what her motivations were.

The heavy metallic _CLICK!_ of a trigger ready to fire drew their attention, “I can’t believe this. Fucking amateurs…”

Maya stared down the barrel of Aldrich Killian’s gun and prayed that she’d done enough. It had to be enough.

There was blood in the water, the sharks were circling, and Tony Stark was barely treading in the rip-tide.

She prayed she wasn’t too late in throwing him a lifeline.

_BANG!_


End file.
